Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Binder Records: Timely--Link to Art Lortie's Transcription

Art Lortie has transcribed Otto Binder's pay records, separating them by company. The first list he's posted is Binder's work for Timely, which covered 1941-48. Like William Woolfolk, Binder gave his scripts working titles that in many instances the editors changed. A few times the working title gives away the ending, so you can see the editors' point. At any rate, a number of stories in the records still have to be connected to the ones published.

Comparing Binder's records with Woolfolk's from the same era, it would seem that at Timely each was paid for quite a few more scripts than ended up drawn and published (I'm pretty certain it will prove so with Binder once all the published stories have been IDed). It happened most notably to both men on Captain America and Young Allies.

One difference between the two writers' work at Timely is that as it became apparent that the superheroes were destined to fade away for a while, Binder switched over to the teen titles there. This tier is from the Hedy de Vine story "Disguise the Limit" in Millie the Model 15 (Dec/48). I never looked for Binder's work among these stories, but knowing now that he was paid for this one (his title was "Incognito"), I can see the characteristic elongation of "Sighhhh."

4 comments:

Since the Patsy story isn't on his records, it might be by another writer who comes down heavy on the last letter's typewriter key. (William Woolfolk does that too, not that I think he wrote the story). With the "Sighhhh" just about the only Binderism in the Hedy de Vine story, I'll admit I needed the records to lead to that one.

In reading Bill Scheely's excellent book on Binder I've taken another look at his prolific credits and noticed, with the exception of "The Black Witch" the GCD only credits Simon and Kirby on Cap scripts. Have you been able to ascertain which Cap stories Binder wrote in the Simon-Kirby period?

As far as I can tell, in those days every Captain America story left Jack Kirby's drawing board written or rewritten by him, so Binder's and Herron's and any others' scripts are reduced to plots (much as happened to Binder with Al Feldstein as editor).

It isn't one of the scripts reported to be by another, so it doesn't prove this point, but "Death Loads the Bases" in CA 7 contains a line that rings in Kirby's dialog style: "By ginger, I'll do it! I'll take a chance on a man without fear any day!"